Thursday, February 2, 2017

Past the Sell-by Date

In case you find yourself in a similar position . . .

I just had not managed to whip and freeze all of the whipping cream that I bought on markdown in early January. Yesterday evening, while the soup was heating, I whipped up a pint that was six days past it's sell-by date. It still tasted fine. I'll whip one last pint tomorrow, to freeze for future desserts, and then I'll be all caught up.

6 comments:

I don't really believe the dates on most things. If anything, they are guidelines but not absolutes. I can't remember anything that ever spoiled beyond the dates printed on the containers. I do remember a gallon of milk that had a date which was something like 7 days before the "use by" date and it was already spoiled. My guess is that it wasn't something we did. I had yogurt in my fridge that had a use by date probably somewhere a few weeks a go (I think it was even longer than that) and it was fine. We ate that with strawberries and it was still fine.

We don't often get those yummy things like whipped cream and when we do have it, it gets gobbled very quickly. I rarely see things discounted in our local stores lately. Either they sell all that stuff before the use by dates or they have other ways of "disposing" of these products. I would happily buy stuff that is close to the use by date.

Hi Alice,the general rule of thumb that I've read is 7 days past sell-by date, for dairy products. For milk that seems to be true, though I had a container that was just beginning to go off, as we were finishing it up, and it was about 5-6 days past sell-by. With yogurt, we've eaten yogurt about 3 weeks past sell-by. I always figure, aside from mold issues, what's it going to do, go sour? Ha ha.

Whipping cream has become harder to find on markdown, now that many dairies are ultra-pasteurizing. It keeps a lot longer in the store coolers, so I think stores wind up selling it all before the sell-by date. Same thing with many brands of eggnog.

Good for you not eating all the cream. I am thinking oh I want some for my coffee:) I have not found the marked down dairy maybe someday. I do know that 99 cents only gets a shipment Thursday night so if I go in on Friday morning I can get most of my organic produce.Blessings,Patti

Hi Patti,I did buy an awful lot of whipping cream this time. Since it was on markdown -- I bought 6 pints!!! That's a lot for us, even if I added it to coffee.That's awesome that you know the delivery date to the 99cents only store! I bet you find many great deals there. And really great that they carry organics. Hmm, I need to check around my area. Thanks for the tip!Have a great day, Patti!

On the best-by dates for milk, you have a big family, so maybe you've not noticed; but we've noticed that, once open, a gallon of milk lasts a long time if it stays mostly full. If it stays mostly empty for the same amount of time, it seems more likely to go bad (sometimes even before the date.) I'm not exactly sure why that is, but it seems to be true around here.

So, to avoid "losing" milk, I try to pay attention to how full it is, and work on it faster as it gets emptier.

Speaking of frozen mounds of things, I WISH I had some frozen whipped cream right now (giggle); but I am still using the fancy mashed potato mounds I made in your style. I'm going to heat one up for lunch today, as a matter of fact; and they've been just wonderful! :) Take good care! Sara

Hi Sara,I've also read that the time begins ticking as soon as you open a dairy product, that it is good until sell-by date, OR about a week after opening. I have had that happened with opened jugs of milk, that last glass will smell almost off.

I am betting those mashed potato servings have been tasty! That sounds like another good thing to make for my lunches.